like the number of times i've watched a movie or heard something and then excitedly followed the reference and then had the object i once loved now pale in comparison

what i'm trying to say is i think modern referential vocabulary feels a lot less synthesised than maybe it used to be .? Idk i'm thinking of martin scorsese and his list of influences which is a high bar obviously, and i don't want to fall into the nostalgia pit here but i think contemporary art objects have more of a direct relationship to their reference point (which is itself an art object) than maybe was evident with previous things. Obviously people have always been inspired by other works but i feel like that relationship has become more evident especially as being able to perform that referential vocabulary is also part of the performance of making and marketing your own thing (see: criterion closet videos, what's in my bag, top 4 lbd etc.)

i was listening to the 1975 iliwys 2016 today just because i'd been thinking about it and how that album had so much novelty for me as a teenager when really now im like ohhhhh you guys are like if the manic street preachers were lcd soundsystem